Towards the end of December last year, Malayalam actor Tovino Thomas shared stills from a new film, in which he looks unnaturally dark. It might not have seemed unnatural if his face was not so well-known, the makeover done exceptionally well. The look is for a special project called Adrishya Jalakangal, he wrote, directed by Dr Biju, in which he plays a ‘nameless young man’. It triggered a not-so-heated discussion on the propriety of darkening faces of fair-skinned actors to play dark-skinned characters. Not at all a new practice in Malayalam cinema, and by the looks of it, not one that is dying down any time soon.
“But Tovino is not playing a dark-skinned character in the film. It is the tan of someone who continuously works under the sun,” says Dr Biju when we ask him. Dr Biju is a director known for many telling films, starting from his first, Veettilekkulla Vazhi, and Perariyathavar, which won Suraj Venjaramoodu a National Award. Perariyathavar (Names Unknown) had also been about nameless workers from the lower end of the social ladder.
Dr Biju, who is often outspoken about matters of discrimination, says that his casting process depends on which actor can do a certain character. He says that if it is a character based on a real life person, then such makeovers should not be done, but that it is fine for fictional characters. “It depends on the choice of the individual (making the film). There is nothing wrong with makeovers (for fictional characters). Otherwise only the dark-skinned can play dark-skinned characters and the fair-skinned fair,” he says.
Just a few months ago, another popular actor, Kunchacko Boban, appeared with a darker skin tone for a role and film that was much appreciated – as Rajeevan in Nna Thaan Case Kodu. He too is always under the sun, working in the soil, in the film.
“Makeover is a part of cinema, I think you should not get too hung up on it. Yes, we can have discussions on the politics of it, but allow the director the creative freedom to do what is right for the screen,” says Kamal, a veteran filmmaker.
Some of his quite famous films have had actors darkening their faces for their characters. One of the most popular examples is Revathy’s character in the 1988 film Kakkothikkavile Appooppan Thaadikal. Kamal says that it was not intended to be a dark-skinned character, just that a fair-skinned girl who was kidnapped as a child had been roaming around everywhere, gaining a permanent tan on her face. However, in his 2002 film Nammal, which marked the debut of several actors, Bhavana’s face was darkened because she was meant to be a dark-skinned young woman from a Tamil background.
Watch: Bhavana in Nammal
“We had auditioned many girls for the role, and Bhavana gave the most satisfying performance. She also had that Thrissur slang, which fit the role. We didn’t want to change the character’s skin colour, so we had to darken Bhavana’s face. She was not too happy about it, it being her debut and all. Back then, we didn’t have the kind of political awareness we have now. This had always been the practice from the days of Sathyan and Sheela, and neither the filmmakers nor the audience saw it as a problem,” Kamal says.
In the days of black-and-white cinema, skin colour had not quite stood out the way it did for colour films. Even so, actors were sometimes darkened to play characters from an underprivileged background. In Collector Malathy (1967), Sheela plays a Dalit character who falls in love with a dominant caste man (Prem Nazir). She leaves the relationship after being pressured by his family members and goes on to become a Collector. That Sheela’s face was darkened is obvious even in the black-and-white frames.
Watch: Scene from Collector Malathy
The same thing happened in another Sheela film that released two years later, Koottukudumbam, in which she plays a Dalit woman who gets married to a dominant caste man (Sathyan), and his family shuns the couple but welcomes them home towards the end. Sheela underwent a similar makeover for this role as well.
But then in two other films of the same time — Velutha Kathreena (1968) and the iconic Chemmeen (1965) — she plays a Dalit character and a fisherwoman’s character respectively, displaying her fair skin. Velutha Kathreena translates to ‘White Kathreena’, and tells the story of a Dalit woman with fair skin. That J Sasikumar made a film in the 60s with complete disregard to the stereotype of presenting Dalit characters by darkening faces is remarkable, considering it is a notion that continues to exist even after decades.
Watch: Song from Velutha Kathreena
There are at least two arguments wrong with this kind of ‘makeover’ for Dalit characters — one, the idea that Dalit persons should look a certain way and that fair-skinned people don’t exist among Dalits, and two, the inexplicable reluctance in casting dark-skinned actors for dark-skinned characters. “I was thinking of PK Rosy (the first Malayalam film heroine and Dalit actor). It all started with the idea of caste,” says Darshana S Mini, assistant professor at the Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has written papers on gender and sexuality.
In Vigathakumaran, the first Malayalam feature film directed by JC Daniel, Rosy plays Sarojini, a Nair character. The dominant caste fascists of the time created mayhem over it and drove Rosy away from town. “Even though colourism is not visible in the conversation around PK Rosy in Vigathakumaran, I think the underlying question is about who can represent certain figures, roles, and backgrounds,” says Darshana.
PK Rosy
She brings up the example of Celluloid, a 2014 film directed by Kamal, telling the story of PK Rosy, JC Daniel, and that first film that ran into such rough weather. In the film, Chandini Geetha, originally a singer, is cast as Rosy opposite Prithviraj’s Daniel. “She was made to look darker than she was. So why did they cast Chandini instead of looking for a new face, someone who might have gone through this experience of living the body of an oppressed caste woman,” Darshana asks.
Kamal says that for Celluloid, he was very particular about casting a dark-skinned person for the role of PK Rosy. It was his wife who apparently pointed him to Chandini, who was participating in a reality show at the time. He thought she was quite apt for the role. “JC Daniel made a young Dalit woman a heroine; that was revolutionary. When we show that on screen, we should not use a fair-skinned actor. When we contacted Chandini, she was interested in acting and the audition went well,” he says.
Watch: Song from Celluloid
Kamal has also darkened a fair-skinned Mammootty to play the lead in Karutha Pakshikal, a film that tells the story of a poor family trying to make money for the eye operation of a blind child. Mammootty has previously donned dark makeup for films, including one of his most appreciated characters as a fisherman in Amaram. There is an unconfirmed story that he was rejected for an award that year (1991) because he looked too handsome to play a fisherman.
Watch: Song from Amaram
That brings us back to the earlier really disturbing question, why cannot a fisherman look good? Why is it that we continue to associate good looks with fair skin? And why do we ignore the fact that there are fair-skinned people in Dalit communities? “It (darkening faces) reinforces the idea that those who belong to the marginalised, working classes have a specific 'look'. This can be read in the same vein as Adoor Gopalakrishnan making the statement that the cleaning women have become 'stars' by dressing well. The idea that those who belong to the subaltern classes will be or should be unkempt is Brahminic baggage,” says Malavika Binny, a historian who has studied gender and caste representations in Malayalam cinema.
She is talking about the recent controversy involving renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who had made problematic statements about women employees at the KR Narayanan film institute, where he had held the chairman’s post. After students of the institute accused the institute’s director Shankar Mohan of casteism and raised several instances to back the allegation, Adoor came to Shankar’s support and criticised the women staff who spoke out, by alluding to their clothing, suggesting that they “dressed up” for the media and became stars. As if it is a given that women workers of the lower socioeconomic strata are not expected to look nice. As we write this, Adoor resigned from the post.
Adoor’s movies have often portrayed women of rural backgrounds, oppressed castes, and poor families. Though he relies on the lungi-blouse clothing of the old days to represent these characters, Adoor has not put dark makeup on his characters. This is not always the case, even with directors who are known to make realistic cinema.
“On the one hand, it is an issue of class/caste appropriation, and on the other it also leads to stereotyping. Tovino Thomas in a recent movie (by Dr Biju), Shaun Rommy in Kammattipadam (by Rajeev Ravi), and Anarkali Marikar (as Kaali for a photo shoot) have donned dark makeup. Why is it that we cannot consider actors with a darker skin tone for such roles?” asks Malavika.
Watch: Scenes from Kammattipadam
She has written about the lack of dark Dalit heroines in Malayalam cinema for Feminism in India where she welcomes Kani Kusruti’s reception speech after getting the Kerala state award for the best actor (female), which the actor dedicated to PK Rosy. After Rosy, Malavika notes, the industry has hardly seen another Dalit Malayali heroine. Even in movies like Kammattipaadam and Kismath (both released in 2016), where caste becomes the subject matter and Dalit women characters are in the lead, they were not essayed by Dalit actors, Malavika writes.
She also brings up, in her article, the controversy that arose over casting fair-skinned Parvathy Thiruvothu for the role of Rachiyamma, in the three-episode anthology Aanum Pennum. In Uroob’s original story on which the film is based, Rachiyamma is a dark-skinned character at its centre. And in Parakkum Thalika (2001), Nithya Das appeared with visible dark makeup on her face to pass off as a ‘woman of the street’, only to later reveal her true ‘fair’ skin and rich family background. Apparently you can’t look dark and be rich.
One of the rare exceptions of dark-skinned actors in yesteryear Malayalam cinema was Soorya, who often played an underprivileged character in art house films. Malavika notes that dark-skinned heroines are such a rarity in Malayalam cinema that a complexion darker than ‘wheatish’ seemed unacceptable. “The painting of light-skinned actors with brown faces is unacceptable. Colourism is a major issue faced by those disprivileged by caste, race, and class. This is as bad as giving a transgender character to cis male/cis female actors,” she tells us.
Soorya / Courtesy - YouTube/FilmFeel Malayalam
Considering the rising visibility of the discussions around this and the awareness that is being meted out, you may not see many fair-skinned persons darkened for dark-skinned roles, or a complete neglect of dark-skinned women for lead roles. But it may take longer for the ancient idea of associating a certain look to persons from underprivileged backgrounds to completely go away.
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